


The Thousand Ravaged Worlds

by ExtraPenguin



Category: Revelation Space Series - Alastair Reynolds
Genre: Aliens, Dawn War, Gen, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-13
Updated: 2017-03-13
Packaged: 2018-10-04 07:45:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,414
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10271729
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ExtraPenguin/pseuds/ExtraPenguin
Summary: The Dawn War is raging. Multiple species have their own solutions.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [weakinteraction](https://archiveofourown.org/users/weakinteraction/gifts).



_Year 2906 of the Dawn War_

Seeaħ moved slowly in this wispy atmosphere, light in the hydrocarbons xir kind so desired. Xe had to place xir feet carefully so as not to collapse without the buoyancy of the atmosphere supporting xir, and the breathing apparatus was uncomfortable.

All of it was necessary.

Seeaħ’s creations had to be hidden from the enemies of the Ħaa’aaei, so that they would not be destroyed. Seeaħ’s creations had to be hidden from the other Ħaa’aaei, so that they could not object to the additional programming xe had slipped in.

The future generations would not repeat their predecessors’ mistakes.

Seeaħ anchored xirself to the metal wire scaffolding with the pincers at the bottom of xir legs, stroked xir prototype with a tentacle, and felt a shiver go down xir spines.

 

_Year 2915 of the Dawn War_

Elsewhere, Tkhuqr of the Sthkir-qhaqr reported to the hive queen that the autonomous terraforming Von Neumann machines were ready to test.

 

_Year 2894 of the Dawn War_

Assaassaa of the Ħaa’aaei met Qhusth of the Sthkir-qhaqr in the orbit of an airless rock, itself orbiting a small red dwarf set to last halfway to the heat death of the Universe, an apt metaphor for the War.

Assaassaa in xir reinforced exoskeleton pressure suit was glad not to have to see the hideous limp tentacles that covered the Sthkir-qhaqr’s body throughout. The trilateral symmetry was still unfortunately plainly visible, making Assaassaa’s pincer feet clack together with revulsion. No doubt the alien was just as repulsed by Assaassaa’s appearance. Nevertheless, negotiations were always challenging.

Assaassaa began. Xe waved xir three pairs of tentacles through the vacuum of the surface, slowly and clearly, using only the simplest forms of the archaic language. After xe had stated the Ħaa’aaei position – there was little overlap in the worlds their species would inhabit, and resource questions for systems with a world for each species could be settled individually – xe waited for the translators, one from each side, to work.

They were machines from a better age, from before the first tensions and the first orbital bombardments.

The Sthkir-qhaqr stated its own message. The translators considered, then waved their appendages in an identical manner.

_We cannot cease until your kind has compensated for the quintillions of our dead and the thousand ravaged worlds._

The Sthkir-qhaqr workers marched to the beat of their hive queen and were unpersuadable. Like every Sthkir-qhaqr negotiator before it, Qhusth was an old, well-programmed worker whose hive queen was light-years away. Assaassaa waved xir appendages in one final appeal. _Are our thousands of ravaged worlds and quadrillions of graves not enough?_

Xe knew the answer even before the translators had processed xir appeal and Qhusth’s reply. _They will never be._

Assaassaa went back to xir spaceship and ordered the crew to send the message that would launch one more assault prematurely declared the parting shots of the war.

 

_Year 2906 of the Dawn War_

Traveling at the speed of light, the signal of the Ħaa’aaei to launch the war machines reached Seeaħ’s world in twelve years. Xe gave xir assent, as was proper, and the war machines slowly erupted from the lunar construction base. Their first task was self-replication, consuming the outer gas giant’s moons and much of the system’s asteroid population.

Seeaħ’s spines quivered in anticipation. The scale of this war was vast, in both space and time. The scale of the additional commands was vaster still.

 

_Year 2915 of the Dawn War_

The Sthkir-qhaqr had had no plans for Ktk should the talks fail, but the hive queen of Ktk was ambitious. She smelled the information twice, considered for a moment, then realized that the Ħaa’aaei – like all lifeforms – required planets and moons to live on. Space stations were fragile. To deprive the Ħaa’aaei – and all the rest of the Sthkir-qhaqr’s enemies – of living space would drive them to extinction.

She stroked her manipulator arms through her fur in satisfaction. The worker in charge of the project, Tkhuqr, would be ordered to make the terraformers a touch more zealous. Then, she would order it to release them to the galaxy at large.

 

_Year 2916 of the Dawn War_

It took Tkhuqr and its worker compatriots a year, but eventually the hive queen’s directive was fulfilled. The greenflies flittered away, off to terraform the nearest two systems and increase their numbers.

The hive queen sent word of the terraformers to her mother, nine light-years distant. Her mother died by a daughter’s claw while the message was in transit.

 

_Year 2911 of the Dawn War_

After the machines had safely left the system with their constructed spawn, Seeaħ revealed the alteration xe had done to the code.

Xe died the death of traitors: abandoned in the wispy atmosphere of the moon, left to either starve or die of joint collapse, whichever hit first.

The machines started on their quest to kill the enemies of the Ħaa’aaei – and make sure no coming species would start down the path of war.

 

_Year 4178 of the Dawn War_

On Eaai, the rimmost world of the Ħaa’aaei, Iħaas oversaw the filling of the refugee ships. They had sent out the large colony ships that had a chance of survival years ago. Now, they were down to the inner-system craft.

A scant few hours ago, Eaai had received confirmation that the second-last of the Ħaa’aaei worlds had fallen to the Greenfly Plague. Years ago, Eaai had seen the Greenfly Plague coming for them. They might have years. They might have hours. Iħaas watched the feeds from the outer system sensor posts, ready to give the signal for every ship to leave. Xir comrades were supervising the building of another lighthugger with capacity for thousands. Billions would still die when the Greenfly Plague arrived and made what had once been habitable inhabitable, caring not for the Ħaa’aaei still on the surface or in its vicinity. Iħaas would be among the dead. The sensor post crews would not die with the planet, but die of nutrient deficiency once the food shipments stopped.

A glaring 817-nanometer light lit up the corner of the direction board. The Plague was here. The sensor crew’s reports told Iħaas exactly how much time there was left.

Xe let the boarding continue as normal. Panic never helped.

 

In the final moments, with orbital shuttles diverted, everything space-capable sent away packed, and those remaining huddling together with what family and friends they had, Iħaas was alone in xir office with no one’s boarding to supervise.

Xe called up a visual feed of the greenflies onto xir screen and watched death approach. Xe had never believed in an afterlife, and now did not feel like a good time to start.

The greenflies settled into orbit. Their first action was turning Iħaas’ space station into greenflies to make the processing faster.

 

_Year 3619 of the Dawn War_

A pack of Inhibitors – five generations removed from Seeaħ, but executing xir code still – came across some greenflies. The greenflies were trying to terraform the world of a non-spacefaring sentient species. The Inhibitors were trying to make sure the species would not go down the path of war.

The Inhibitors saw greenflies and the local species at war. Both were to be destroyed so they could not go further down the path of war.

Both were destroyed successfully.

The Inhibitors went forth to their next destination.

 

_Year 3083 of the Dawn War_

Molumma of the Ngolun swam slowly through the ocean, immersed in thought. Ze absentmindedly grabbed one of the passing docile fish with hir proboscis and stuffed it in hir mouth. As a recent recruit of the Bioengineering Institute, ze had little authority and many concerns. As a recruit of the Bioengineering Institute, ze had been trained to think on the long scale. As a Ngolun with access to the news, ze was concerned about the mechanical monstrosities released elsewhere in the galaxy. How many more minds would be lost, how many unique ideas dissipate into the currents, before this war was over? If only all sentients who had ever lived could be stored somehow, their leaps of logic there for the future generations to learn from…

Wait.

Molumma was struck by the familiar daydream of an ocean where learning would be as simple as swimming. Hir vision might even be achievable with hir current post. Some sort of micro-organism, attuned to brain waves?

Ze turned back towards the Institute and swam with purpose.


End file.
